Denver mayoral party-hopping

Last night, I witnessed the victory speeches of both mayoral candidates who qualified for the June 7 runoff, Chris Romer and Michael Hancock, making me perhaps the only person to do so. (You may recall I did something similar with the senatorial and gubernatorial primaries last August.) Here’s some video of both, mixed with iMovie on my iPhone:

Earlier in the day, I had mapped out all the relevant parties, so I’d have my options in front of me. Then, after putting the girls to bed at just before 7:30 PM, I checked the results, saw that Romer had a solid lead while Hancock and James Mejia were locked in a tight battle for second place, and decided to head to Romer’s party (at Governor Hickenlooper’s old digs, Wynkoop Brewing Company) first. I figured he’d give the earlier victory speech, while the other two would have a longer night. I was right. Here’s a blurry picture of Chris Romer and his father, ex-governor Roy Romer, clasping hands in victory after Chris’s speech:

(I have better pictures from my SLR camera, but haven’t had a chance to view them yet. I’ll probably post some later.)

By the time Romer was done, it was clear that Hancock was pulling away from Mejia, so I headed north to the Exdo Event Center instead of south to La Rumba. There, I found a hoppin’ party — “if the Denver mayoral race was graded on who played the loudest, funkiest music, Hancock would probably win,” AP reporter Ivan Moreno aptly tweeted — complete with a D.J. and even some live entertainment by the candidate’s teenage sons:

It took a while — and in the interim, I managed to suffer a mild allergic reaction by eating a bite of a chicken salad sandwich containing some sort of nuts (leading to my later joke, “Michael Hancock is trying to kill me” — but eventually further results came in, and Hancock decided his lead was wide enough to declare victory over Mejia. (“We’re declaring,” I overheard one Hancock aide telling another, which I promptly tweeted at Colorado Public Radio reporter Megan Verlee, who was in attendance and tweeting from the party. Verlee retweeted that tweet, and would later interview me, having found my Twitter coverage interesting.) The podium was hastily set up, supporters were encouraged to get on stage and were given signs, and they were wildly enthusiastic as Hancock emerged and declared, “It’s on.”

My impressions from the evening? Hancock’s a better speaker, with a more vocally enthusiastic support base, at least on this night. He clearly intends to hit Romer hard on the “experience” front — Hancock is a city-council veteran, while Romer’s experience is in business — while Romer intends to play the role of the non-City Hall-connected outsider (and Hickenlooper clone) who wants to make “politics move at the speed of business” in order to “take this city to the next level.” It’s a little tricky, though, for both candidates. The roles are unusual, the messaging a bit confused, and the dynamic fascinating.

Romer is a scion, the very definition of a moneyed establishment candidate, and is widely disliked by the activist Left (at least relative to his opponents; these are all Democrats running in a “non-partisan” race for mayor of a liberal city). So it’s a little odd for him to be running as an “outsider.” Likewise, it’s a little odd for Hancock — who has not been a lefty favorite either, but who now desperately needs to consolidate grassroots progressive support that previously went to third- and fourth-place finishers James Mejia and Doug Linkhart — to be running as the “experienced” candidate. Who ever heard of the anti-establishment liberal insurgent (which is the role he needs to fill) running as the experienced, steady hand who’s “ready from day one”?

It will be an interesting and delicate balancing act for both candidates. Romer has the money, the connections, the business ties and perceived business-friendliness, and will presumably clean up among Republicans and right-leaning independents (who do exist in this city, albeit in a distinct minority). Hancock has the African-American vote and a certain slice of the Left, and he’s a better speaker, so he’ll fare well in debates and whatnot. But he now needs to broadly appeal to the progressive activist base, and liberals generally, without abandoning the center to Romer. He also, in my judgment, needs to work on sounding more credible on economic issues; he’s great on education, but the mayor has little to do with education, and Romer sounds more solid when discussing the economy and jobs, which is why I voted for him yesterday. Hancock will need to demonstrate he has the chops on those issues in order to win over folks like me.

I actually think Hancock has a pretty decent chance of winning — indeed, last night, in the afterglow of his rally, I predicted he will — but he needs to navigate a slightly tricky path to make it happen. Then again, Romer needs to navigate some tricky waters too, not least his slightly confused messaging in running against City Hall as the non-political outsider who wants to “cut red tape” and make government more efficient, while also heaping praise on the previous mayor (Governor Hickenlooper) and trying to convince voters he’s the second coming of the wildly-popular Hick… who would presumably bear at least some of the responsibility for the red tape and inefficiency that Romer is otherwise railing against.

One random aside: I saw Charlie Sheen references at both parties. After Romer’s speech, a supporter lifted his hands in the air and shouted, “WINNING!!!” And at Hancock’s rally, one of the people on stage was wearing a purple shirt that said simply, “WINNING.” Ah, Charlie Sheen, how your mental illness has penetrated pop culture.

Anyway, after the jump, my tweets (and selected retweets) from the evening.

All times GMT.